Superfund is a program initiated by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States, with the goal of identifying, isolating and clearing up areas of the country that have been contaminated by hazardous waste materials.

Like history’s more eccentric – and often short-lived – pneumatic railways, the Clifton Rocks Funicular Railway in Bristol, UK, without doubt ranks among the most unusual underground railways ever constructed.

In late 2014 dozens of classic cars were uncovered in France in what Yahoo Autos termed the “biggest barn find of the century”. Now, one of them, a 1949 Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport SWB par Saoutchik has sold for almost $2 million at auction.

The massive buildings that form the backbone of the world’s industry can be ungainly monstrosities. When they’re abandoned, they can sit empty and unused for decades. But here are 10 repurposed industrial buildings that are bucking the trend.

The abandoned subterranean railway siding beneath New York City’s Waldorf Astoria is well known to urban explorers. But news of its existence – and that of the armoured train car parked on its tracks – may come as a surprise to many.

During World War Two, control towers played a crucial role in military activities, from the safe guidance of aircraft movements to coastal defence and oversight of minefields. But many now stand eerily abandoned.

It’s one of the most intriguing tales of modern British aviation history. On September 26, 1994 a mysterious aircraft allegedly crashed at MoD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire. But are the reports real? Or is it simply an urban legend?

Sheffield, South Yorkshire’s great industrial city, which was once at the forefront of global steel production and later gave the world The Full Monty. But there are other more offbeat places too, such as those seen in this article.

On the island of Kiska, Alaska, an abandoned Japanese midget submarine has lain silent in the grass that has consumed its former launch facility for decades. The abandoned wreck is now part of a Pacific war memorial.

The bike paths of Boulder, CO boast some impressively creative street art. But this ring of stones surrounding a small cairn seems somewhat out of place beside Goose Creek Path between Foothills Parkway and 30th Street.

It doesn’t look like much today. But this abandoned airfield on the west side of Pagan Island in the Marianas housed a 2,150-strong garrison of the Japanese Imperial Navy during World War Two and is home to several wartime wrecks.